Forcing Starvation On Feral Cats: City Council Needs Attendance/Emails
The following appeal came via AR-News alerts. Please attend if you are able and send messages. I have included a sample message for use, but please modify to shorten, the message needs only be brief. At the bottom I included TNR information for those who are unfamiliar with this program. Thank you.
***Please note, I have sent messages via both my Comcast and Yahoo accounts and all were returned as denied, but another editor had none bounce back.
From Lydia Caldwell
Good morning, Community Leaders and Advocates of TNR:
Please take the time to read and take action.
On Monday, October 18, 2010, at 7:00 p.m., Bellaire City Council is expected to pass a City Ordinance BANNING feeding of all feral cats in Bellaire, Texas (adjacent to Houston, TX), including those cats currently in colonies practicing TNR.
The ONLY possible way to stop this from happening is by all of us SPEAKING UP in opposition, BEFOREHAND AND THE DAY OF!!!
Some of you do not live in Texas and cannot attend on Monday, October 18, but you most certainly may e-mail the Bellaire City Council and implore that they NOT pass an ordinance banning the feeding of all feral cats in Bellaire (which impedes individuals’ TNR efforts).
And, for those of you who live in Houston or anywhere near Bellaire, PLEASE CHOOSE TO ATTEND this Bellaire Council meeting (Bellaire City Hall, 7008 South Rice Avenue, Bellaire, TX 77401), in solidarity OPPOSING this ordinance!! And, better yet, SPEAK at this meeting!!! Both, Bellaire and NON-Bellaire residents may SPEAK against this ordinance for 5 minutes!!!!
This proposed city ordinance has come about because some business owners on a particular street in Bellaire, complained to Bellaire City Council that people were feeding these cats (approx. 35 cats), making a mess for them.
I am imploring Bellaire City Council to deal with the situation on Spruce Street in Bellaire, as the individual incident that it is. The City of Bellaire is NOT overrun with feral cats by any means!!!! This is NOT a city-wide issue. Why use such a broad stroke to address the issue on Spruce Street?
Today this is happening in Bellaire, TX. Tomorrow, it could be YOUR community!
If we don’t speak up now, we won’t have any business complaining when it passes. PLEASE FORWARD THIS TO ALL IN YOUR CONTACT LISTS! Let’s get standing room only at Bellaire City Hall on Monday, October 18, 7:00 p.m. And, for those of you with media connections, get them there!
Again, if you can’t attend the meeting, please send an e-mail, bombard their offices. Please speak up for the cats.
Thank you!
Lydia Caldwell
P.S. For those of you who wish to read the latest article on the subject matter, see yesterday’s Southwest News at: www.village-southwest-news.com Click on Southwest News. Article is at top of first page and continues on last page, page 16. The comments made by some of the council members reflect their lack of understanding of the subject matter and compassion.
WHAT, WHERE, WHEN
Bellaire City Hall
7008 South Rice Avenue
Bellaire, TX 77401
Monday, October 18, 2010: 7:00 p.m.
GOOGLE MAP
WHERE TO SEND YOUR MESSAGES
Mayor, Cindy Siegel: csiegel@ci.bellaire.tx.us
Mayor Pro Tem, Phil Nauert: pnauert@ci.bellaire.tx.us
Council member, Corbett Parker: cparker@ci.bellaire.tx.us
Council member, Will Hickman: whickman@ci.bellaire.tx.us
Council member, Jim Avioli, Sr: javioli@ci.bellaire.tx.us
Council member, Andrew Friedberg: afriedberg@ci.bellaire.tx.us
Council member, Mandy Nathan: mnathan@ci.bellaire.tx.us
AS A GROUP (copy/paste into your TO: and hit one return/enter, but this method is not supported by all email platforms)
csiegel@ci.bellaire.tx.us , pnauert@ci.bellaire.tx.us , cparker@ci.bellaire.tx.us , whickman@ci.bellaire.tx.us , javioli@ci.bellaire.tx.us , afriedberg@ci.bellaire.tx.us , mnathan@ci.bellaire.tx.us
SAMPLE MESSAGE TO USE AS A GUIDE (please shorten and modify so they receive a variety of brief messages)
Dear Council Member,
I am shocked to learn that the Bellaire City Council is considering to enact an ordinance banning the feeding of a feral cat colony. I have to wonder about the legality of such a proposal to cause deliberate harm and fatalities much less the fundamentally unethical position of such. It is my understanding that certain business owners object to the cats’ presence, but proposing to starve them is utterly selfish and cruel. There is no justification for anyone to adopt these suggestions much less your willingness to share and endorse them. Such an idea disregards cats’ value and inherent right to live free from cruelty and deliberate suffering.
Although it is understandable that one wishes to preserve landscape or a pristine storefront, it is entirely inhumane to engage in such a cruel “remedy”; we need to foster a relationship with our animal friends that is mutually beneficial, not divisive . Furthermore, implementing this plan would only succeed in eliminating the cat population for a limited time; due to a vacuum effect, the emptied niche would soon be populated by other animals: because cats and other animal populations, such as mice and rats, live in symbiotic manners, any disruption in the feline colonies will cause a rebound in the other.
Please adopt a more responsible and humane approach to reducing cat-business owner interactions such as a colony relocation. This extension of obligatory compassion would prove a pivotal response to a human-manufactured validation of the mass killing of sentient non-human animals, and it would also provide favorable financial consequences as well due to positive feedback, both of which would be well received by the communities. Until such a time when animals are no longer deliberately killed due to human-designed parameters, I respectfully request you practice in an economically responsible and empathetic manner and maintain the cat colony rather than destroy it.
I know your time is limited and I thank you for your consideration.
NAME
What is TNR?
From Neighborhood Cats
Trap-Neuter-Return, commonly referred to as “TNR,” is the only method proven to be humane and effective at controlling feral cat population growth. Using this technique, all the feral cats in a colony are trapped, neutered and then returned to their territory where caretakers provide them with regular food and shelter. Young kittens who can still be socialized, as well as friendly adults, are placed in foster care and eventually adopted out to good homes.
TNR has many advantages. It immediately stabilizes the size of the colony by eliminating new litters. The nuisance behavior often associated with feral cats is dramatically reduced, including the yowling and fighting that come with mating activity and the odor of unneutered males spraying to mark their territory. The returned colony also guards its territory, preventing unneutered cats from moving in and beginning the cycle of overpopulation and problem behavior anew. Particularly in urban areas, the cats continue to provide natural rodent control.
Another significant advantage to TNR is that, when practiced on a large scale, it lessens the number of kittens and cats flowing into local shelters. This results in lower euthanasia rates and the increased adoption of cats already in the shelters.
TNR is not just the best alternative to managing feral cat populations – it is the only one that works. Doing nothing has resulted in the current overpopulation crisis. Trying to “rescue” the cats and find them all homes is utopian and unattainable given their numbers and the futility of trying to socialize most of them. Trap and remove, the traditional technique exercised by animal control, is simply ineffective. If all the cats are not caught, then the ones left behind breed until the former population level is reached. Even if all the cats are removed, new unneutered cats tend to move in to take advantage of whatever food source there was, and the cycle starts again. This explains why more and more animal control agencies are willing to try TNR.
Finally, TNR is an idea whose time has come. It recognizes there is a new balance in our urban and rural landscape, one that includes feral cats. It seeks to manage this new population with enlightened techniques that allow the cats to live out their lives and fulfill their natures, while minimizing any possible negative impact. TNR is a movement that will continue to grow as more and more caring people see its potential and, in time, it will become the predominant method of feral cat management.
Brief TNR Tutorial
Vodpod videos no longer available.
The ABCs of TNR
Our Compass 
This is inhumane,cruelty to animals, and murder if those cats die. I thought the US had laws that will punish anyone who is cruel to an animal. Let them cats live the way they want, they are hurting no one. Starving aniamals is punishable by law in my state, guess texas only cares about them big ol hats they wear. This is mentally wrong.
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feeding bans for feral cats are inherently cruel and do not come close to achieving their intended goals. Feeding ban laws, ordinances, and policies are misguided policy and are wholly ineffective.
Feeding bans do not work, and are not scientifically supported.
Attempts to eradicate feral cats by starvation fail because there are other food sources that are a by-product of urban and suburban environments. Feral cat populations’ density and locations are not contingent on individuals intentionally providing food for the cats.1, 2 Studies have shown that other sources of food are always available – including food scraps in household trash and municipal garbage facilities.3 Cats are territorial and bond to their surroundings. As scavengers, they can find food in garbage cans and dumpsters.
In certain situations, feral cats who have been fed on a consistent schedule can become dependent on their caregivers for food, and in these cases, to abruptly discontinue care is cruel and can lead to the death of some cats. But cats will not disappear simply because compassionate people can no longer legally feed them.
Feeding bans encourage cats to roam further to find food, making them more visible, which can actually increase calls to animal control. Managing a colony with a program that includes Trap-Neuter-Return and consistent, organized feeding discourages roaming because neutered males are no longer searching for mates, and there is decreased competition for dominance rank.4 Cats who are fed on a regular schedule tend to stay in close proximity to their feeding stations. Feeders can also exercise control over the behavior of feral cats, by gradually moving their feeding stations into less-trafficked areas.
Feeding bans discourage the practice of Trap-Neuter-Return, the only effective course of action for stabilizing the feral cat population. Scientific studies as well as decades of hands-on experience show that Trap-Neuter-Return programs work to end the breeding cycle, improve the cats’ health, and make them better neighbors by ending mating behaviors. 5
With a feeding ban in place, Trap-Neuter-Return is impossible to carry out, and the cats continue to have new litters of kittens.
Feeding bans punish the very people who are working to improve conditions for the cats and for the community. In the last 20 years, the number of local nonprofit organizations dedicated to helping feral cats in the community has grown to over 250 nationwide. Hundreds of thousands of Americans, spending their own time and money, organize low-cost spay/neuter clinics, carry out Trap-Neuter-Return programs and organize foster programs for adoptable cats and kittens. These Good Samaritans are an asset to the community. Feeding bans force their work into secrecy.
Feeding bans are impossible to enforce, complaint-driven, and rapidly deteriorate into a situation of extreme cruelty, with no net benefit to the community.
Feeding bans ignore the real problem—the lack of affordable spay/neuter services in the community. Feeding bans are punitive and tend to direct resources towards administrative tasks like enforcement and away from incentive-based programs that encourage spay/neuter. Ineffective ordinances, like feeding bans, are a waste of taxpayer dollars.
Alley Cat Allies encourages communities to reject cruel, punitive, and ineffective ordinances and instead to embrace humane programs that really work to stabilize the population and keep cats out of animal shelters, including Trap-Neuter-Return for feral cats and subsidized and low-cost spay/neuter for all cats.
Trap/Neuter/Return (TNR) is an effective way to
control feral colonies. Feral cats are found in every
community. When cats are not sterilized they
reproduce. Cats and their offspring bond together in
groups called colonies. The colonies stay where there
is a food source. People care for colonies and provide
food, water, and shelter.
To manage colonies, Trap/Neuter/Return is the only
solution. TNR is humane and painless. Cats will no
longer reproduce and the colony is manageable.
TNR is the only chance that feral cats have to live a
safe and healthy life. TNR requires comittment
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I sent the above info to TEXAS…shame on them…
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ARE YOU SERIOUS TEXAS!!!! OK, ARE YOU NUTS??? Who came up with such a sickening ridiculous ‘law’??? What big smart ass Texan pulled this out of his hat?
Do you not think there is enough abuse, neglect, torture, out there done toward animals & YOU come up with this. These cats are getting ‘fixed’ & so what if people feed them. JESSUS..this sounds like some sort of pathetic joke! What are you teaching young kids … nothing but look the other way, when there are animals or people in need!
It will be a hell of a longtime before I visit & spend money here if this idiotic law goes thru!
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